Buccaneers recent signing proves fact to the rest of the NFL
By Rob Leeds
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a team that you join when you want to compete for a Super Bowl. The Akiem Hicks signing shows as much.
Over the course of the last three seasons, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been able to dramatically change how they are seen by the rest of the NFL.
What was once the laughing stock of the NFC South has now become one of the best teams in the league, and free agency is generally one of the best ways to see this.
Teams can be good for a short stretch. Maintaining that talent over the years is much harder to do. Should anyone see the Bengals asa favorite to win the AFC again? Probably not, and that reflected in their modest free agency.
Players go to teams where they know they can win. Great players go to teams where they know they can win a Super Bowl. What Akiem Hicks did in deciding to go to Tampa is different from what many of his counterparts did.
Generally, great players should rarely get the chance to become free agents (see everyone the Rams have signed in the past few months). Even a team like the Bucs does a good job of keeping the band together during the current iteration of the franchise.
Still, teams outgrow players that still have talent like Hicks, and he then got an opportunity to enter the free agent market as one of the best players at his position.
Of all the places Hicks could go, Tampa stood out based on the ability to compete for a Super Bowl. This shows a fact that the rest of the league can’t ignore; the Bucs are, at least for now, one of the best free agent destinations in the NFL.
Players recognize this, and there is a good chance that Hicks isn’t the last big name to join the Bucs this offseason either.
Great players have a way of making their way to great teams when they have a desire to win, and we are at least guaranteed one more year of this time in the sun. Tampa needs to make the most of it.
What Buccaneers young face has to show in training camp to keep job. light. Trending
Want to write about the Buccaneers? Apply below!
Want your voice heard? Join the The Pewter Plank team!